Improvements of multiple FGS layers coding for low-delay applications in SVC

For low-delay applications in Scalable Video Coding, there are two alternative coding strategies based on AR-FGS for compressing multiple FGS layers. However, their coding efficiencies both suffer largely from the inherent drifting errors. In this paper, a more efficient multiple FGS layers coding structure is presented, which can provide higher coding performance within wide bitrate range and stronger error resilience. This is achieved by incorporating the partial-reconstructed enhancement layer references, instead of the complete-reconstructed ones, into the motion-compensated prediction loop of the FGS layers. Thereupon the prediction drift can be effectively decreased, especially for the middle bitrate points. Further, through selecting different-quality enhancement layer references generated with cycle-based reconstruction mechanism, more flexible video quality can be supported to be more suitable for varied practical application requirements.